Nurses are the backbone power in the battle against COVID-19. In order to provide nurses with professional and practical guidance, Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) efficiently summarized frontline practice and released Practical Manual of Nursing Care for COVID-19 Patients in early March, 2020, with multidisciplinary efforts from both workers in Wuhan medical team and Beijing home base. Since its publishing, the book has drawn extensive attention by nursing professionals both nationally and internationally. The upcoming English version of the book is now in preparation.
Practical Manual of Nursing Care for COVID-19 Patients released by PUMCH
The editor team repeatedly polished the writing framework and wording, highlighting the key point as well as describing the details, so that the book could be truly “down to earth” and provide reference for clinical nursing practice.
The book is comprehensive and rich in content, including nursing measures for different medical areas (fever clinic, quarantine ward, critical care unit and Fangcang shelter makeshift hospital), as well as patients with different clinical type (mild, ordinary, severe and critically ill). Besides, the book also covered physical and psychological protection measures applicable to healthcare professionals.
The book is practical and hands-on in nature, combining the prevention and control measures in PUMCH in Beijing and nursing practice of the frontline medical team in Wuhan. PUMCH national medical team left for Wuhan in 26th, January, 2020, and cared for critically ill COVID-19 patients in Sino–French New City Branch of Tongji Hospital. Under the leadership of Xinjuan Wu and Hong Sun, the nursing team formed a series of standardized procedures and specifications, worked closely with physicians to delivery intensive and meticulous care to patients, besides achieving zero infection in medical team members. All these precious experiences ensured the scientificity and authority of the book. Part of the book has been taken as the fundamental blueprint of the Nursing Standard for Severe and Critically ill COVID-19 patients released by the National Health Committee.
Frontline nurses reading the manual
After the publication, the books were quickly shared to the nursing colleagues across the country, contributing to their fight against COVID-19. So far, a total of 35,000 books have been sent to 31 provinces, cities and autonomous regions. Among them, over 4,000 books have been donated to more than 40 hospitals in Hubei province via Hubei Nursing Association. In the meantime, the electronic version can be accessed freely on the internet. Nurses spoke highly of the book and commended the book as “timely rain” and “precious gifts”, for they have access to prompt and scientific guidance to care for COVID-19 patients through the book. The book also draw attention from international nursing colleagues and is preparing to be published in English.
More than 40 hospitals in Hubei received the manual
Tibet Autonomous Region People’s Hospital receiving the manual
It is our sincere wish that PUMCH wisdom and PUMCH experience condensed in the book playing a more valuable role in assisting nurses from all over the world to win the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.
Writer: Jing Cao, Zhen Li, Tan-ping Fu
Photo: Nursing Department, PUMCH